Network and IT security is a very important part of the IT system of any business today. There are more threats than ever before, and the risks can come from both natural and malicious sources. IT services providers in West Palm Beach focus on preparing businesses for both avoidable and unavoidable attacks. One of the areas that must be looked at is social engineering. Unlike hacking and malware attacks, the focus of this kind of attack is to take advantage of the human element. As a business, you must understand social engineering and empower your employees so that they do not fall prey.
How Social Engineering Works
As already mentioned, social engineering is about manipulation. Hackers and cybercriminals looking to get access to your company network, emails, and important data focus on gaining the trust of an end-user with the relevant access. This can be done in any number of ways, including impersonation. If the criminal can access the email or social media account of someone, they can send messages to that person’s contact list. The unsuspecting recipients could easily believe that the message came from their contact. Because of this trust factor, they are more likely to read the message, open any links and attachments it could contain, and take any requested actions. Following links to suspicious sites and downloading unknown attachments are some of the ways that malware infiltrates a system.
Sometimes, the cybercriminal can make specific requests from the message recipients. This could be for password information, company data, or even personal funds if they convince someone that they are stranded somewhere. Everyone using your network must be aware of these kinds of attacks. Conducting security training provided by IT services experts in West Palm Beach is one way to keep everyone informed.
Social engineering attacks happen very often. People can be very trusting and are not always on the watch for possible attacks. For the criminal, this can be an easy inroad if successful. They can access passwords, data, and even money without having to hack into a network. Even more alarming is the fact that it only takes one moment of manipulation for the hacker to be let in. All your security measures, such as firewalls, password management, and network monitoring, cannot protect your systems if access is given to the wrong person.
There are many other ways that people are commonly conned into disclosing important business information. To learn more about social engineering and how to keep your business protected from it, get in touch with Nexxen Technologies. Our IT services experts in West Palm Beach will guide you through on how to secure your business.